thanks, all, for the suggestions.

JoshT --- I already tried closing the chart objects I created but there is no close method for them so attempting to close them just gives an error message. I agree with you that this seems like the right thing to do, but it is not doable.

I'll try the other suggestions.

What I HAVE discovered since the first post is that if I do not create the chart objects, then excel closes just fine, so the problem pretty much HAS to be something to do with the creation of the chart objects, which is why I agree that JoshT's idea has merit except that I CAN'T close the chart objects, so I'm at a loss.

I tried "quit", "close" and so forth but there doesn't seem to be anything of that nature that you can do to a chart object.